Humble winner: Kendrick Lamar's hit single tops the Hottest 100

Kendrick Lamar has taken out the top spot on this year's Hottest 100 countdown for his hit single Humble.

After Triple J tallied a record 2.38 million votes, the American rapper narrowly pipped Gang of Youths and Angus and Julia Stone, who ended the day in second and third place respectively. Gang of Youths dominated this year's countdown, with four songs in the Hottest 100 and three in the top 10.

Gang of Youths' pianist and principal songwriter
Dave Leaupepe told Triple J that he had no idea the band's latest album, Go Farther In Lightness, would be so popular.

"We thought it would be universally panned and we would be marched out the back and shot," he joked. "This is so weird. Thank you, thank you. We're a little bit overwhelmed."

An overwhelming majority of Triple J listeners supported the change and - despite some calling for a boycott - around 130,000 more votes were cast in this year's countdown compared to last year.

The ABC has remained tight-lipped about the timing of next year's countdown. Under the new format, the Hottest 100 is to be broadcast on the final Saturday each January. However, in 2019 January 26 falls on a Saturday.

"The way the weekend falls does change, which is out of everyone's control," he said. "We'll review how it all goes and make an announcement about the 2019 dates in the near future. We don't want the Hottest 100 to be part of the big political debate happening now."